Sketches from Raqqa by Molly Crabapp; Redux.
October 11, 2014 5:08 PM   Subscribe

Sketches from Raqqa--BBC and CNN audio and video pieces While I just missed the Previous post (Daily Life in Raqqa under Isis, Oct 6)., I caught this BBC interview, and MSN video "selfie". I'm sort'a glad I did because I might have skipped further coverage. Negative responses to the project seem to miss the context of art in war correspondence. This BBC interview reveals legitimate intention, if not journalistic merit.

Crabapple's sketches are based on reference photos from a contact in the town of Raqqa. The BBC interviewer asks, "Why not publish the photos?" (Also, a comment from the Vanity Fair article echoes the same: "I'd much rather see the photographs themselves than have to suffer the unnecessary editorializing of some white western doodle drawer...")

Her response:
"There are a few practical reasons ... the first is people's faces show in the photos. I would compromise people's anonymity. The second reason is there are no photo journalists in Raqqa. People who are taking photos...taking them surreptitiously, from far away, blurry...My intent was to restore the craft [as if taken by a photo journalist]".

I'm reminded of court room sketches. And war correspondence drawings (some by women)--albeit this artist is not on the front lines, yet the people taking the photos are.

There's a power in these drawings. Not for evidence (who's not yet convinced ISIS is actually savagely oppressing the people under their control?), but because these drawings depict both places you can recognize, and send a message to the perpetrators of this savage violence. Even if ISIS is capable of controlling professional journalistic image, the message, the image still gets out--even if its only as art.
posted by xtian (0 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Heya, the framing here is way too personal-voice/bloggy for a post, and in any case it'd be better to just add this to the open thread from a few days ago that you referenced here. -- cortex



 

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